Fertility rates vary considerably across and within societies, and over time. Over the last three decades, social demographers have made remarkable progress in documenting these axes of variation, but theoretical models to explain family change and variation have lagged behind. At the same time, our sister disciplines-from cultural anthropology to social psychology to cognitive science and beyond-have made dramatic strides in understanding how social action works, and how bodies, brains, cultural contexts, and structural conditions are coordinated in that process. "Understanding Family Change and Variation: Toward a Theory of Conjunctural Action" argues that social demography must be reintegrated into the core of theory and research about the processes and mechanisms of social action, and proposes a framework through which that reintegration can occur. This framework posits that material and schematic structures profoundly shape the occurrence, frequency, and context of the vital events that constitute the object of social demography. Fertility and family behaviors are best understood as a function not just of individual traits, but of the structured contexts in which behavior occurs. This approach upends many assumptions in social demography, encouraging demographers to embrace the endogeneity of social life and to move beyond fruitless debates of structure versus culture, of agency versus structure, or of biology versus society.

First published in 1901, this title lends insight into the position of English women in the workforce at the turn of the twentieth century. The conditions of women changed rapidly throughout the 1800s, leading to more varied choices in terms of career and lifestyle. However, this title also reveals the limited status of women even one hundred years ago, as Lyttleton urges that women must decide between a family life and a career. Women and Their Work will be of interest to students of Sociology, Women's History, and Gender Studies.

This fascinating book illustrates the importance of analyzing sexuality by examining ways in which stepping outside heterosexuality necessitates and facilitates long-term economic independence. Based on a life-history study, the book charts key stages in the lives of non-heterosexual women, including their experiences of gendering in childhood and their responses to 'the culture of romantic heterosexuality'. In particular it documents the impact of 'coming' out on their lives and the way sexuality has affected their approach both to intimate relationships and paid work.

It has been argued that the family is a clearly bounded center of love and emotion in the lives of people. It is a center which is separate from more public arenas. The Irish family, however, has until recently had neither clear boundaries nor overt emotional nurturance. This is due in large measure to English Colonialism and the influences of the Catholic Church upon Irish culture. English colonialism and the strong strain of Irish Catholicism have subjected Irish cultural understandings of private life to extensive Church and government intervention. This has influenced the Irish experience of marriage, family life, community, and work. These disparate areas of life are, for the Irish, more similar emotionally and behaviorally to each other than they are different. In addition, the Irish generally live in small, face-to-face communities, even in urban areas, meaning that people are uncomfortable with too much self-disclosure and rely on long-term interaction to create closeness. Events, not emotions, are analyzed.

While some social scientists argue that the modern or postmodern self is somehow less authentic than those living in primitive societies because different aspects of life are fragmented and disconnected (for example home and work), the author shows how among the families she studied in Ireland the notion of dichotomies is somewhat false, and that people's relationships in the different arenas are not very different.

This book theorizes five youth television series: "Dawson""'s Creek, Freaks and Geeks, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Roswell, " and" Smallville "from a psychoanalytic perspective drawing on the meeting ground between Jacques Lacan, Gilles Deleuze, and Felix Guattari. jagodzinski develops the notion of self-refleXivity (as distinct from self-reflection and self reflexion) to identify that aspect of the inhuman within ourselves, namely the order of the drives that these series explore. It is argued that the narratology of the post-Gothic form of "Buffy, Roswell, "and" Smallville" is the structure of paranoid schizophrenia. A hyper-self-reflexivity informs "Dawson's Creek," while "Freaks and Greeks" deals with ethical dilemmas.

Problems associated with work-family conflict do not belong to individual families alone, but have a major social and economic impact on the greater community. This scenario also holds true across sub-Saharan Africa, as nations enter the global economy and rising numbers of women enter the workforce.

One of the first resources to focus on this region, "Work-Family Interface in Sub-Saharan Africa" probes rarely-studied dimensions of conflict between paid employment and family responsibilities. It balances theoretical background, empirical findings, and current and emerging interventions for an insightful and practical review of ongoing issues affecting working women with families. Coverage contrasts concepts of work and family between the developing world and the West, and related social concerns such as gender expectations and sexual harassment are examined in the work context. The book describes a range of family strategies for resolving work-family friction, and chapters end with policy recommendations as first steps toward remedying longstanding challenges. Among the thought-provoking dispatches: Ghana: Managing work and family demandsNigeria: Strain-based family interference with workBotswana: The social impact of job transfer policy on dual-career familiesKenya: The role of household help in work-family balanceSouth Africa: State measures toward work-care integrationZambia: The quest for a family policy

As evinced by these chapters, progress is gradual and far from uniform. As a guide for future study and future policy, "Work-Family Interface in Sub-Saharan Africa" is a substantial reference for sociologists, public health professionals, public and social policymakers, and administrators."

"The New Uprooted" explores the relationship between the single mother and her social and physical environments. Mulroy examines how demographically diverse single mothers (in terms of race, class, marital status, urban or suburban location, educational level, and employment status) experience dual roles as sole family breadwinner and sole resident parent in the 1990s environment of scarce resources. Families headed by single mothers have become a unit of social concern not only because they represent a changing family form, but because their economic marginality threatens a downward spiral toward the instability of urban poverty. The mothers' key issues are the high cost of housing their families in relation to low wages, irregular or nonpayment of child support, public welfare benefit levels, and the effects of domestic violence.

The book is based on multi-method research that includes analyses of the most recent census data relative to the changing composition of families and households, economic trends, and employment; analysis of recent empirical studies on increased neighborhood poverty and urban restructuring; and field research on the coping strategies of 73 single mothers. It will be of interest to public policymakers, scholars, and students of the contemporary American family, housing, and welfare issues.

This compilation of the best thinking about adoption by both historical and current authorities reveals a vital, ever-changing practice affecting the lives of millions of people around the globe. The ancient practice of adoption has changed significantly through history. In colonial America, parents adopted out their unwanted children-those who were "rude, stubborn, and unruly"-to other families. Today, Americans go abroad looking for children to adopt, and have adopted more than a quarter million internationally. Adoption: A Reference Handbook, Second Edition not only traces the development of expert thinking about adoption, it also looks at both sides of the latest controversial issues. Should adoptions be open or closed? Should the government regulate adoptions more closely-or less? This updated second edition offers an international perspective with a new chapter on how countries outside the United States provide adoption services. This work is an indispensable resource for those thinking about adoption or researching its history. Primary sources include testimony from hearings and court cases, and case studies explain and illuminate concepts A chronology of events and milestones includes coverage from the time of Moses to the present day

Accounting for Affection examines the multifaceted nature of early modern motherhood by focusing on the ideas and strategies of Roman aristocratic mothers during familial conflict. Illuminating new approaches to the maternal and the familial employed by such women, it demonstrates how interventions gained increasing favor in early modern Rome.

Originally published in 1914, this text describes L.T. Headland and his wife's experience in China in the early twentieth century. With a focus on home life this study explores issues such as children, marriage and education as well as food, religion and concubinage as well as presenting anecdotes and personal stories from the families Headland interacted with. This title will be of interest to students of Asian Studies and Anthropology.

When gay couples become parents, they face a host of questions and issues that their straight counterparts may never have to consider. How important is it for each partner to have a biological tie to their child? How will they become parents: will they pursue surrogacy, or will they adopt? Will both partners legally be able to adopt their child? Will they have to hide their relationship to speed up the adoption process? Will one partner be the primary breadwinner? And how will their lives change, now that the presence of a child has made their relationship visible to the rest of the world? In Gay Dads: Transitions to Adoptive Fatherhood, Abbie E. Goldberg examines the ways in which gay fathers approach and negotiate parenthood when they adopt. Drawing on empirical data from her in-depth interviews with 70 gay men, Goldberg analyzes how gay dads interact with competing ideals of fatherhood and masculinity, alternately pioneering and accommodating heteronormative "parenthood culture." The first study of gay men's transitions to fatherhood, this work will appeal to a wide range of readers, from those in the social sciences to social work to legal studies, as well as to gay-adoptive parent families themselves.

This comprehensive reference views China's welfare system through a cultural-historical lens to integrate its complex story into the global study of welfare. Focusing on the mainland's vast, mainly rural population and its long and complicated history, it analyzes rural welfare from the imperial dynasties, to the socialist planned economy under Mao Zedong, to its recent history in the current market economy. Findings from government and academics explore salient topics such as urban/rural inequity, the situation of migrant workers, change of social security system, the community development of the countryside, and the relationships of rural welfare policy with social structure, cultural background, economic development and political institution. This broad and deep knowledge gives readers the tools necessary for understanding the relationship of China's unique and nuanced past to its prominent status in the evolving global economy. Among the book's topics: < Welfare studies in the West and China Welfare practice in the period of 1840-1949 Creation of the Socialist Welfare System: socialist reformation and construction The Social Security system in rural China, 1979-1998 Re-collectivized process in welfare and economy Welfare's political contexts: rural grass-roots democracy With its accessible, up-to-date coverage and holistic approach to its subject, Rural Welfare in China will find a diverse interested audience, including sociologists, political economists, and social policymakers.

This book explores research on processes that influence family-school partnerships in support of student learning and education. It highlights research related to culture, contexts, and development as families and schools work together to promote smooth transitions and academic achievement. The volume discusses research related to family and community engagement with schools, and describes the various mechanisms by which partnerships may support students' long-term developmental outcomes and success beyond school. Each chapter sets forth a forward-thinking research agenda aimed at further understanding and implementing the processes by which family-school partnerships promote children's healthy adjustment. In addition to examining critical and emerging issues, this unique book also provides robust strategies, data, and rationales across the following areas: Cultural processes and the connections among home, school, and community. Family-school relationships during adolescence. Achievement mediators of family engagement in children's education. Continuities and consistencies across home and school systems. Uncovering processes and pathways in family-school research. Strengthening networks and attachments to promote child development. Processes and Pathways of Family-School Partnerships Across Development is a must-have resource for researchers, scientist-practitioners, and graduate students in child and school psychology, educational policy and politics, family studies, developmental psychology, sociology of education, and other interrelated disciplines.

Relying on women's own words in letters and journals, Rosenzweig refutes the prescriptive literature of the times with its dire predictions of inevitable rifts between Victorian mothers and their daughters, the new women of the twentieth century. Instead Rosenzweig shows us mothers who rejoiced in their daughters' educational successes and, while they did not always comprehend the nature of the changes taking place, were only too happy to see their daughters escape some of their own restrictions and grief.

Extremely useful to scholars and teachers of women's history and family history, "The Anchor of My Life" should also be fascinating to the general public for the accurate window that it provides on these complicated family relationship in our history.
--Laurie Crumpacker, Department of History, Simmons College

"Drawing on a broad array of historical sources, "The Anchor of My Life"challenges the common assumption that mother-daughter relationships invariably are characterized by tensions and conflicts. This lively and moving book deserves a wide audience."
--Emily K. Abel, author of "Circles of Care: Work and Identity in Women's Lives"

The relationship between mothers and daughters has been the subject of much research and study, in such fields as psychoanalysis, sociology, and women's studies. But rarely has the history and evolution of this relationship been examined.

In "The Anchor of My Life," Linda W. Rosenzweig draws on a wide range of primary sources--letters, diaries, autobiographies, prescriptive advice or self-help literature, and fiction--to reveal the historical nuances of this pivotal relationship. Rosenzweig's distinctive approach focuses on the interaction between mothers and daughters of the American middle class at the turn of the century, revealing that mothers and daughters managed to sustain close, nurturing relationships in an era marked by a major female generation gap in terms of aspirations and opportunities. Illustrated with photographs and portraits of the time, "The Anchor of My Life" provocatively challenges the facile, late twentieth-century assumption that the mother-daughter relationship is necessarily defined by hostility, guilt, and antagonism.

In this innovative study of the South Carolina Low Country, author Stephanie McCurry explores the place of the yeomanry in plantation society--the complex web of domestic and public relations within which they were enmeshed, and the contradictory politics of slave society by which that class of small farmers extracted the privileges of masterhood from the region's powerful planters. Insisting on the centrality of women as historical actors and gender as a category of analysis, this work shows how the fateful political choices made by the low-country yeomanry were rooted in the politics of the household, particularly in the customary relations of power male heads of independent households assumed over their dependents, whether slaves or free women and children. Such masterly prerogatives, practiced in the domestic sphere and redeemed in the public, explain the yeomanry's deep commitment to slavery and, ultimately, their ardent embrace of secession.
By placing the yeomanry in the center of the drama, McCurry offers a significant reinterpretation of this volatile society on the road to Civil War. Through careful and creative use of a wide variety of archival sources, she brings vividly to life the small worlds of yeoman households, and the larger world of the South Carolina Low Country, the plantation South, and nineteenth-century America.

Italian Family Matters examines the debates and political priorities that led to significant changes in the law and its relation to women and the family in postwar Italy. Informed by the feminist debates on these issues, it shows that both the need for and the limits to the demand for equality before the law can be used to show what a different ordering of the relations between the sexes could mean.

The genealogical model has a long-standing history in Western thought. The contributors to this volume consider the ways in which assumptions about the genealogical model-in particular, ideas concerning sequence, essence, and transmission-structure other modes of practice and knowledge-making in domains well beyond what is normally labeled "kinship." The detailed ethnographic work and analysis included in this text explores how these assumptions have been built into our understandings of race, personhood, ethnicity, property relations, and the relationship between human beings and non-human species. The authors explore the influences of the genealogical model of kinship in wider social theory and examine anthropology's ability to provide a unique framework capable of bridging the "social" and "natural" sciences. In doing so, this volume brings fresh new perspectives to bear on contemporary theories concerning biotechnology and its effect upon social life.

For many years, government policy has associated young people 'being NEET' (Not in Education, Employment or Training) with educational underachievement, worklessness, generational poverty, poor health, antisocial behaviour, and reduced life expectancies. Researchers and policymakers continue to debate whether young people become NEET as a result of their own choices (i.e. their personal agency), or as a result of external factors (i.e. social, political and economic structures). Most recognise that the truth is somewhere between the two, but a clear understanding of how each interacts in causing young people to become NEET has so far been elusive, making the development of effective policy and practice problematic. Agency, Structure and the NEET Policy Problem makes headway against this problem through an original approach that draws on social cognitive theory and the lived experiences of young people themselves. Investigating the lives of NEET young people between the ages of 17-21 in London, this book elucidates the interactions between agency and structure that lead to them becoming NEET, and in doing so, offers a new perspective on the phenomenon. It offers a valuable critique of existing policy, providing both breadth and detail on the factors affecting the trajectories of young people in their transitions to continued education, training, or employment. It offers a way forward for all who are interested in developing, supporting and implementing a revitalised approach to NEET policy and practice, and a framework around which a coherent multidisciplinary approach to addressing NEET could be developed.

Researchers recognize that theoretical frameworks and models of child development and family dynamics have historically overlooked the ways in which developmental processes are shaped by socio-cultural contexts. Ecological and acculturation frameworks are especially central to understanding the experiences of immigrant populations, and current research has yielded new conceptual and methodological tools for documenting the cultural and developmental processes of children and their families. Within this broad arena, a question of central importance is on how gender roles in immigrant families play out in the lives of children and families. Gender Roles in Immigrant Families places gender at the forefront of the research by investigating how it interplays with parental roles, parent-child relationships, and child outcomes.

This work assembles a group of international scholars to address issues on marriage and the state, motivations to marry, partner selections, marriage ceremonies, religion, kinship ties and marriage, sexual interaction and marriage, and divorce.

This collection brings together an interdisciplinary pool of scholars to explore the relationship between children and borders with richly-documented ethnographic studies from around the world. The book provides a penetrating account of how borders affect children's lives and how children play a constitutive role in the social life of borders.

This authoritative book examines current trends in divorce throughout the world, analyzing hitherto inaccessible information on Asian and Arab countries and Eastern Europe, as well as data from Latin America, Western Europe, and the Anglo countries. William J. Goode asserts that these trends over the past four decades challenge previous theories, including his own, first offered in his classic World Revolution and Family Patterns. Among the topics Goode discusses are how divorce rates in different countries are affected by industrialization, dictatorship, civic standards for nations, and easier divorce laws; the relations between divorce and such factors as age and class; the meaning of the worldwide rise in cohabitation; and why people are becoming less likely to remarry. In all these divorce systems he points to the problems caused by divorce: how to get child support from ex-husbands, the increase in mother-headed families (even in Arab countries), and the scanty help (if any) governments give to such families. He argues that modern countries with high rates must learn an important lesson from what he calls traditional "stable high-divorce-rate" systems--that divorce is part of the system, and that we must create and support social norms (not only laws) that reduce its harsh effects.

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Read the Preface.

"A wide-ranging and beautifully dialectical analysis of the modern discourses on love and intimacy. David Shumway overturns some of the usual assumptions about romantic love and, in the process makes original, often surprising observations about literature, movies, pop music, self-help books, and a variety of other texts. Modern Love is a pleasure to read, and it contributes significantly to our understanding of modernity."
--James Naremore, Indiana University

"Fascinating and timely."
--"Intams Review"

"An extremely valuable contribution to the history of that supposedly timeless ideal, the intimate relationship."
--Elizabeth Freeman, author of "The Wedding Complex"

"A cultural study of love and marriage in fiction and film rather than a history of recent marriage, "Modern Love" illuminates the complexities of an important recent development in American marital ideals."
--"The Journal of American History"

"My ideas of romance came from the movies," said Woody Allen, and it is to the movies--as well as to novels, advice columns, and self-help books--that David Shumway turns for his history of modern love.

Modern Love argues that a crisis in the meaning and experience of marriage emerged when it lost its institutional function of controlling the distribution of property, and instead came to be seen as a locus for feelings of desire, togetherness, and loss. Over the course of the twentieth century, partly in response to this crisis, a new language of love--"intimacy"--emerged, not so much replacing but rather coexisting with the earlier language of "romance."

Reading a wide range of texts, from earlytwentieth-century advice columns and their late twentieth-century antecedent, the relationship self-help book, to Hollywood screwball comedies, and from the "relationship films" of Woody Allen and his successors to contemporary realist novels about marriages, Shumway argues that the kinds of stories the culture has told itself have changed. Part layperson's history of marriage and romance, part meditation on intimacy itself, Modern Love will be both amusing and interesting to almost anyone who thinks about relationships (and who doesn't?).

Reproductive disruptions, such as infertility, pregnancy loss, adoption, and childhood disability, are among the most distressing experiences in people s lives. Based on research by leading medical anthropologists from around the world, this book examines such issues as local practices detrimental to safe pregnancy and birth; conflicting reproductive goals between women and men; miscommunications between pregnant women and their genetic counselors; cultural anxieties over gamete donation and adoption; the contested meanings of abortion; cultural critiques of hormone replacement therapy; and the globalization of new pharmaceutical and assisted reproductive technologies. This breadth - with its explicit move from the local to the global, from the realm of everyday reproductive practice to international programs and policies - illuminates most effectively the workings of power, the tensions between women s and men s reproductive agency, and various cultural and structural inequalities in reproductive health. Marcia C. Inhorn is Professor of Medical Anthropology at the University of Michigan, where she directs the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies. A specialist on infertility and assisted reproductive technologies in the Muslim Middle East, she is the author or editor of four books on the subject. Her publications include Quest for Conception: Gender, Infertility, and Egyptian Medical Traditions (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994, winner of Eileen Basker Prize for outstanding research in gender and health), Infertility and Patriarchy: The Cultural Politics of Gender and Family Life in Egypt (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996) and Local Babies, Global Science: Gender, Religion, and In Vitro Fertilization in Egypt (Routledge Press, 2003)."

Although interest in mother/daughter relationships has led to a plethora of books on the subject, these books all consider situations found in the mainstream white population. In this book, relationships between mothers and daughters from 13 ethnic groups, including Asian, Black, Latino, and Native American, are explored. The voices of 17 highly successful mothers, in different stages of their life, and their 19 daughters are heard. The reader will learn of their values, intergenerational relationships, and the mother's influence as a role model. The research that confirms and validates these women's life stories is discussed. The book provides valuable insight into the issues facing minority women in the United States.

Although the women in these case studies come from diverse multi-ethnic backgrounds, they have all faced traditional and ethnic barriers and been able to achieve success, becoming role models for their daughters. The book is both a significant contribution to women's and ethnic studies, social sciences and education.